On the Cabin John Trail – More episodes from the pandemic – Decline in hospitalizations – The impeachment trial begins – Protests in Myanmar – Evening statistics
The Vigorous Hikers went along the Cabin John Trail today. It is nine miles each way, or eighteen total there-and-back, with about 1300 feet of elevation gain in all. None of the ascents are particularly long or steep, but they are numerous. LH, the hike leader, was recovering from a medical procedure, so I led the hike in his stead. It was a good group, averaging about 3 miles per hour. We had lunch on the return portion of the hike, sitting at benches under a sycamore tree at the Locust Grove Nature Center, which the trail borders. It was chilly and overcast in the morning, but the sky cleared and the temperature went up to the high 40s – which actually was more than I wished, for the higher temperatures melted the snow and ice left over from the snowfall on Sunday and made parts of the trail extremely muddy. Even slight ascents and descents had to be taken carefully, on account of the danger of slipping.
With vaccinations being distributed in greater numbers, the public mood has become more hopeful – more so, perhaps, than is warranted by the actual circumstances. The following episodes illustrate that we have a way to go before seeing the end of the pandemic. Makenzie Gongora, of San Antonio, TX, contracted the disease at the age of nine. She had no pre-existing conditions and her symptoms were mild, but she died in her sleep just three days after being diagnosed with the virus. Thaddeus Valentine Senior was chief of the Herbert Wallace Volunteers Fire Department in Avondale, LA, for nearly 20 years and then, after retiring, board president of InclusiveCare, at which he led the center’s efforts to make coronavirus testing and vaccinations available to patients. But he declined receiving the vaccination himself, apparently mistrustful of its safety. He contracted the virus shortly afterwards, and within two weeks he, along with his son and his daughter, died from the disease.
It is true that vaccinations are being distributed in a somewhat more orderly fashion than previously. In addition, hospitalizations are declining in almost all states (Vermont, Idaho, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia are the exceptions, but even in these the increase is small relative to the increases of previous weeks). But it will take several weeks for even a third of the population to receive their vaccines, and longer still for the effects of the vaccines to result in the pandemic retreating from us.
The impeachment trial began today. The greater part of the proceedings consisted of a debate as to whether or not the impeachment is constitutional now that Trump is out of office, but eventually the Senate voted to allow the trial to proceed. The vote tally was 56-44, with six Republicans siding with the Democrats in this matter. The schedule is now as follows: each side has up to 16 hours per side to present its case beginning at noon tomorrow. Each side has a maximum of two days to present its case and eight hours for each day’s presentation. After the presentations are done, senators will have a total of four hours to question both sides. Then there will be four hours divided equally between the parties for arguments on whether the Senate will consider motions to subpoena witnesses and documents, if requested by the managers. All of which means that the trial should be over by Sunday at the latest.
The defense presented by Trump’s lawyers about the unconstitutionality of the trial has already had one curious effect. Originally only five Republicans voted against the motion to abandon the trial on the grounds that it was unconstitutional. Today, however, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana added his vote to these, saying that the defense lawyers made such a wretched hash of their arguments as to lead him to decide that an impeachment trial perhaps wasn’t such a bad idea after all. “They did everything they could but to talk about the question at hand. And when they talked about it, they kind of glided over, almost as if they were embarrassed,” he told reporters afterwards. It is to be hoped that Trump’s lawyers will continue as they have begun and thereby sway other Republican Senators in this manner.
In Myanmar the military authorities are attempting to ban protests. Rallies and gatherings of more than five people, along with motorized processions, are outlawed and an 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. curfew has been imposed in Yangon and Mandalay, the two largest cities. The protests are leaderless for the most part, but they have been growing steadily over the weekend. Up to this point the military government’s attempts to suppress the protests have been relatively non-violent, consisting mainly of disrupting communications and social media such as Facebook. Observers are concerned that that the military is laying the groundwork for a violent crackdown such as those that ended protest movements in 1988 and 2007.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 107,382,361; # of deaths worldwide: 2,348,837; # of cases U.S.: 27,794,757; # of deaths; U.S.: 479,511.